Just as “Rust Never Sleeps,” “Lens Curiosity Never Rests” either, and here is a good example. Left over from my MF Mamiya RZ67 days, I have a couple lenses that did not sell or I did not sell them. I had eleven lenses at one point.
Chief among these is the Mamiya 250 f/4.5 APO Tele lens. The beast weighs three lbs. A few years ago I managed to get a copy of the Fotodiox PRO RZ67-Nikon adapter, which actually works. It has small helicoid ring in it, and a foot that will take the load off your Nikon camera. The bare truth is that, when used, the foot is not strong enough and the ring (with lens mounted) turns like a can opener, i.e. very slow and jerky.
Anyway, I noticed that the Cambo Actus has a lens board just for the RB/RZ67 MF camera, so this got me to thinking. So, there being wind today and rain last night, I won’t do much focus stacking in the fields today, like: none.
So I got out the Mamiya 250mm and the Fotodiox adapter and then added a Mamiya extension tube (#1) to this whole deal (to bring it closer) and mounted it on a tripod with the Nikon D810. The lens, extension, and adapter together weigh 4-3/8 lbs. and, as mentioned, don’t stress the camera, but certainly stress that tiny foot on the adapter.
Even with the adapter the near focus is something like 10 feet. I include a photo taken with the setup and then a crop that shows the common Milkweed beetle that is part of it. Focus was almost impossible because the helicoid, as mentioned, jerks the whole setup with every attempt to turn it. Nevertheless, the lens is quite sharp. I include another photo of the arm of one of our outside wooden chairs as a second example.
No, I won’t ever use that adapter again, but I still am curious how it might do on the Actus with the ability to smoothly focus it. Anyone have any experience with this lens or comments?
